His Light In The Darkness

Chapter One

Chapter One

Tom Riddle sat with his head resting in his palm. He, along with the rest of the students attending Hogwarts, were on the train to school. If he calculated right, they would be there in a little under two hours. Until then he was stuck in this stuffy compartment, listening to Avery and Lestrange talk about girls. Every so often, Nott and Malfoy would chime in.

Tom glanced down at the 'Head Boy' badge attached to the front of his Slytherin robes. He had changed almost as soon as they boarded the train, hours ago. Glancing at the badge reminded him that he had been assigned a task by Headmaster Dippet. There was to be a girl aboard the train, one that was transferring to Hogwarts this year. He hadn't even known that transferring was a thing, but according to Dippet, it was. Tom had been told that when they got off the train, there would be a girl looking for him. She was a fifth year and was to be sorted before all of the first years. Tom was given the task of finding her and escorting her up to the castle.

He hadn't been given a description of this girl at all. He was just told that she was a fifth year and a girl.

Sighing, Tom lifted his head and looked at Avery, Malfoy, Nott and Lestrange.

"Go change into your robes. We'll be back soon. And if you should happen to see a girl, a fifth year, without house colors, bring her to me, straight away."

The four boys nodded and got up, grabbing their robes out of their trunks and exiting the compartment, leaving Tom all alone.

~*~

Tom had been one of the first ones off the train. He helped direct the first years towards the boats by the lake and the rest of the students towards the carriages, all the while keeping an eye out for this girl he was suppose to escort.

Avery, Nott, Malfoy, and Lestrange hadn't had any luck finding her when they had gone to change and it had frustrated Tom to no end. How hard was it to find one fifth year girl without house colors?

By now the crowd had dwindled down to a few straggling students; a couple of third years and a rather large group of sixth years. He shooed them to the carriages and huffed when he saw no one left.

Not being the kind of person to stand around waiting, Tom huffed once more and stormed towards the carriages.

Once he got to them, he noticed that all of the students had gone, the last of them a good couple of meters ahead once he got there.

Tom climbed up, giving the thestrals in front of his carriage a glance before settling on the bench seat.

Letting out a sigh, Tom closed his eyes and rubbed between his eyebrows, clearly frustrated that this girl had slipped past him at some point. He had kept a good watch, he knew he had, and yet she was nowhere to be seen.

After taking a deep breath, Tom opened his eyes. They narrowed when he realized that the thestrals hadn't started moving yet. He stood up and looked down at them and was about to shout for them to move, but stopped when he saw a girl, standing in front of one of them. As he peered down at her, he noticed that she was stroking one of the thestrals on the head.

She must have noticed his gaze on her because she looked up at him, her hand halting its movement.

Tom gave her a quick once over, taking in her appearance. She had long, curly reddish-brown hair that reached the middle of her back. Her eyes were the color of the sky on a bright day, without clouds. She looked to be rather short but he had a hard time distinguishing that since he was up in the carriage. She had on the school uniform, minus the house colors. This was the girl he had been waiting for!